World Boxing is still recruiting. Almost a month to the day before its first Congress, scheduled for November 24 and 25 in Frankfurt (Germany), boxing’s new international body has announced the arrival of six new national federations: Finland, Iceland, Jamaica, Nigeria, Norway and the Czech Republic. Their membership applications have been approved. Their representatives will therefore be able to attend the Congress, where the body’s first president and executive committee will be elected. With these six new members, World Boxing now has 22 member countries from all five continents. A press release from the body created in April 2023 on the initiative of the American, New Zealand, Australian, English, British and Dutch federations presents Nigeria as the first African country to join. But according to information relayed by the InsidetheGames website, the Nigerian Boxing Federation (NBF) has not formally turned its back on the IBA. Its vice-president, Azania Omo-Agege, has informed the other members of the African Boxing Confederation (AFBC) that it remains loyal to the body chaired by Russian Umar Kremlev. “We reaffirm our loyalty to the IBA, the only international body recognized by the IOC, and we stand in solidarity with the IBA family, insists the leader. I would like to make it unequivocally clear that the NBF dissociates itself from World Boxing.” Azania Omo-Agege’s comments raise questions as to his real knowledge of Olympic boxing, the IBA having lost its recognition by the IOC since last June.
